• Mary Dale Gilmore, 76, a regular human-interest columnist and feature writer for the weekly Highline Times from 1963 to 1989, died Jan. 1 in Burien of complications from a stroke.

• Clarence Frederick Klopfenstein Jr., 91, former president of Klopfensteins, a Northwest chain of menswear stores started by his father, died of cancer Jan. 8 in Redmond.

• Alfred “Al” Dieffenbach, 76, a retired Seattle Times newsman known for his love of family and a crusty sense of humor, died of a heart attack Jan. 10 in Arizona. He worked for The Times from 1964 to 1993 as a medical reporter and copy editor.

• Rod Dent, 73, who spent decades as a copy editor with The Seattle Times and several other newspapers across the country, died Jan. 10 in Tucson, Ariz., of complications from a fall.

• Smai Harnsontthi, 66, abbot of the Thai Buddhist temple in Auburn and overseer of 43 temples in the United States, died Jan. 12 in a Federal Way hospital of heart trouble.

• Roland Milton “Milt” Trafton, 85, former chief executive officer of Safeco, a mountain climber and marathoner, and a driving force in Seattle’s arts community, died Jan. 15 in Seattle.

• Dudley Hill, 56, a longtime bluegrass, rock and jazz guitarist who helped form the string band Pearl Django to honor jazz great Django Reinhardt, died Jan. 15 in Tacoma of cancer.

• Brian Brett, 24, of Bellingham, and Pete Tripp, 22, of Bend, Ore., both of whom were Gonzaga University students, were killed in an avalanche Jan. 16 near Mullan, Idaho. Their bodies were recovered the next day.

• Charles D. Kilbury, 85, a former state legislator, Pasco mayor and longtime Tri-Cities Democratic leader, died Jan. 17 in Kennewick after a long battle with diabetes and heart problems.

• Bob Moch, 90, a lawyer and coxswain of the 1936 University of Washington eight-oared crew that won the Olympic gold medal in front of Adolf Hitler, died Jan. 18 on the Sammamish Plateau after suffering a stroke earlier in the month.

• Al Malanca, 77, lead attorney for more than a dozen power companies in the legal battle over a multibillion-dollar bond default of the 1980s involving the Washington Public Power Supply System, now Energy Northwest, died Jan. 19 in Tacoma.

• Charles Taylor, 70, former principal of Shorecrest High School in Shoreline, remembered as a hands-on administrator who encouraged students, died Jan. 21 in Edmonds of a heart attack.

• Anne Gerber, 94, who was known for her unflagging support of artists and social causes and referred to herself as an “artnik,” died Jan. 22 in Seattle.

• Jim Hershey, 78, who taught history in Bellevue and Sammamish high schools for more than 20 years and founded Bellevue High’s swim team, died Jan. 22 in Bellevue.

• Bill Shadel, 96, a broadcasting pioneer who covered D-Day for CBS, moderated a 1960 televised presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy and was a communications professor at the University of Washington, died Jan. 29 in Renton.

• Wayne Johnson, 74, an enduring influence on the Northwest theater community during his years as a critic for The Seattle Times, died Feb. 1 in Seattle of a heart attack.

• Gunnie Foerster, 111, recognized as one of the world’s oldest people, died Feb. 4 in Shoreline.

• Bruce Miller, 60, a Skokomish spiritual leader whose teaching nourished a Salish renaissance of art and culture in the Northwest and beyond, died Feb. 5 of a stroke.

• Gordon Wallace “Gordy” Young, 93, a prominent member of the national fly-fishing fraternity and a charter member of the sport’s international organization, died Feb. 5 in Seattle.

• Ross McPherson, 62, who spent 29 years with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, died Feb. 6 in Monroe from complications stemming from heart failure.

• Orville Helgeson, 80, who spent his life in Christian ministry, died Feb. 6 in Seattle of pneumonia.

• Cale Campbell, 82, a former high-school coach and teacher who operated the elevator at the Kingdome and worked at other sports venues and was remembered for his upbeat outlook, died Feb. 11 in Seattle of a heart attack.

• Elsa Winners Sherwin, 99, who taught German at the University of Washington after emigrating from Germany in 1937, died Feb. 11 in Seattle of heart failure.

• Sydney Anschell Steuer, 71, who devoted her life to music and was the accompanist half of the local musical duo Chutzpah, died Feb. 14 at the Mercer Island Convalescent Center.

• Johnnie Clifton Burgin, 85, a leading collector and restorer of vintage Harley-Davidson and other motorcycles, died Feb. 18 in Lakewood, Pierce County.

• Eugene Corr, 82, a former assistant police chief who helped expose an illegal payoff system in the Seattle Police Department in the late 1960s and later served as U.S. marshal for Western Washington, died Feb. 20 in Seattle of lung cancer.

• Ruth Fisher, 79, flinty Tacoma Democrat who represented the 27th District in north Tacoma from 1982 to 2002 and was a powerful chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee known for her advocacy of rail and rapid transit, died Feb. 21 at her home in Tacoma. She was diagnosed in December with advanced lung cancer and cardiopulmonary obstructive disease.

March

• Spencer Garrett, 52, a Kirkland Libertarian who ran for Congress last year in the 8th District, died March 5 in a sky-diving accident near Snohomish.

• Bernice Jonson, 90, a divorce attorney whom a judge described as “one of the early and certainly one of the most effective women attorneys in the state of Washington,” died March 7 in Seattle.

• Justus “Buddy” Webber, 82, a Seattle radio disc jockey who also hosted a TV show in the 1960s and ’70s, died of pulmonary fibrosis March 11 in Bothell.

• Donald Griffith Jr., 29, an Army sergeant who grew up in Iowa and was stationed at Fort Lewis, was killed March 11 in Iraq during a suicide bombing.

• Ted Rand, 89, a prolific children’s-book illustrator whose work earned him wide acclaim, died March 12 on Mercer Island of cancer.

• Jackson V. “Jack” Lone, 39, a member of the Seattle Police Department’s Harbor Patrol and an 18-year police veteran, died March 16 while trying to secure an old tugboat in the Lake Washington Ship Canal.

• Julie Zarelli, 56, an advocate for teens who helped establish Seahawks Academy, a Seattle public school for youths at risk of dropping out, died March 17 in Monroe of complications from a brain aneurysm.

• Robert G. “Bob” Graves, 82, a former Energy Northwest president and leading public-power official in Washington state for decades, died March 19 in Kennewick of heart and lung ailments.

• George Immerwahr, 95, who worked as a demographer for the U.S. government, the United Nations and the University of Washington, died March 20 in Kirkland of complications from prostate cancer.

• Ron Ling, 58, who worked at clinical-research centers in Seattle, died March 20 in Prosser, Benton County, of a pulmonary embolism while returning from watching the University of Washington Huskies play in an NCAA basketball tournament in Boise.

• Spc. Travis Bruce, 22, an Army police officer who was based at Fort Lewis, was killed in Baghdad on March 23. He was on his second tour of duty in Iraq.

• James C. Purnell, 84, a Seattle financial leader who helped establish the city’s first African-American bank, died March 24 in Seattle.

• Jim Hussey, 84, who oversaw the interior-design division of a prestigious local architectural firm and acted as a mentor to generations of up-and-coming draftsmen and architects, died March 25 in Moses Lake.

• Fay Whitney, 92, a former Mercer Island Citizen of the Year who volunteered with dozens of organizations, died March 27 on Mercer Island.

• Nancy Chao-nan Ho Wang, 90, who taught Chinese for years at the University of Washington and helped Chinese newcomers navigate the city, died March 28 in Seattle after a stroke.

• Mary Ann Bisio, 50, who spent her life singing, studying and conducting choral music and worked with the Seattle Symphony Chorale, died March 30 in Seattle of cancer.

• Paul G. Dye, 68, a former Boeing engineer who founded Northwest Wildlife Farm, a wild-bird sanctuary and breeding center for endangered species near Lake Stevens, died March 30 in Everett.

April

• Fred Haley, 92, president of Brown & Haley, maker of world-famous Almond Roca and other chocolates, and who was nationally recognized for his civil-rights work, died April 4 in Lakebay, Pierce County.

• John “Jack” Start, 72, a member of the Mill Creek City Council, died April 7 of complications from lung cancer.

• Gertie Sprenger, 91, who spent more than 30 years as a Seattle Opera trustee, Opera Guild member, volunteer and activist, died April 8 in Federal Way.

• Ted Matthews, 48, a paramedic with the Marysville Fire District, died April 10 from injuries suffered April 8 when the small plane he was flying crashed near his home in Marysville. His wife, Karen Matthews, 43, was killed in the crash.

• Julaine “Julie” Martin, 76, an active community volunteer and gracious behind-the-scenes force in the academic career of her husband — Dr. George Martin, professor of pathology emeritus at the University of Washington — died April 10 in Seattle of brain cancer.

• Hsiaoyu Jiang, 46, an Edmonds cardiologist and avid cyclist, died April 14 from injuries suffered five days earlier in a bicycle accident in Kenmore.

• James Donald Seeley, 83, a retired teacher who was devoted to restoring and exhibiting classic cars, particularly the Chrysler Airflow, died April 14 in SeaTac of a heart attack.

• Harvard Palmer, 90, a Seattle lawyer and die-hard sailor known for his rich, deep bass voice, died April 15 of liver cancer.

• Lou Bianchi, 86, a musician and Northwest entertainer for decades who wrote “Summer of ’62,” an ode to the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, died April 19 in Seattle of heart failure.

• Michael H. Rosen, 67, former executive director of the Washington state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and founder of a charity for abused children, died April 19 in Seattle. He had Parkinson’s disease.

• Frank Ruano, 84, a real-estate agent and developer who led unsuccessful efforts to fight public funding for the Kingdome and Safeco Field, died April 20 in Seattle.

• Kelly Johnson, 46, of North Bend, a longtime land surveyor for an Issaquah civil-engineering firm, and his daughter Candi Johnson, 19, were killed April 23 when the motorcycle they were riding was hit by a car on Highway 18 near Maple Valley. Candi Johnson also worked for the Issaquah firm.

• Buck Douglas Jr., 66, who developed strong bonds with his caregivers at Harborview Medical Center during his 15-year recuperation and convalescence after a 1990 truck-motorcycle accident that left him near death, died April 28 in Seattle.

May

• Michael “Big Mike” O’Brien, 39, a river guide and bartender who moved to Seattle 3 ½ years earlier, died from a fall May 1 on Mount Everest during a climb to raise awareness and money to fight Huntington’s disease, which claimed his mother and sister.

• Dean T. Anderson, 57, a stalwart Democratic activist with a deep religious faith and unique determination, died May 2 of respiratory complications in Shoreline. Anderson had spina bifida and was declared hopeless as an infant, yet he finished high school, attended business college and worked for decades at Pacific Northwest Bell, now Qwest.

• Demsas Tesfay, 21, who came to the United States with his family from Sudan and moved to Lynnwood in 1996, was fatally shot May 3 in the University District.

• James Bostwick Douglas, 95, a real-estate developer who was involved with nearly every Seattle landmark or civic event of the 1950s and ’60s, including the Space Needle, Northgate Mall and Seafair, died May 4 in Seattle of pneumonia.

• Thomas James Bernard Petosa, 61, who owned and ran Petosa’s Family Grocery in Edmonds for nearly 20 years, died May 5 in Edmonds from complications related to heart disease.

• Philip Spaulding , 92, a naval architect who designed state ferries, a variety of oceangoing vessels and Boeing’s first hydroplane test craft, died at his Magnolia home May 5.

• Orie Williams Greene, 82, who taught for 30 years in Seattle and Bremerton, died May 5 in Seattle after a brief illness.

• Wayne Prescott Suttles, 87, a scholar on Pacific Northwest Indian culture who was cited in landmark U.S. and Canadian court rulings and specialized in the Salish peoples’ economies and languages, died May 9 on San Juan Island of pancreatic cancer.

• Scott Glascock , 63, an activist who co-owned Cafe Flora, a well-known vegetarian restaurant in Seattle’s Madison Valley, died of cancer May 12 at his Capitol Hill home. His experiences extended from California’s Free Speech Movement in the 1960s, to the rise of the gay-rights movement, the AIDS epidemic of the ’80s, and the blending of liberal politics and for-profit business in the ’90s.

• Pierce Milholland, 69, of Seattle, who gave up architecture two decades ago to become a full-time artist focusing on contemporary impressionism, died May 13. He had been in poor health since several heart attacks and strokes in the last few years.

• Pat Groom, 58, of Seattle, a tenacious woman with a passion for speaking out against injustice, died of suicide May 14. She had been in the final stages of a fatal genetic disorder, Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency.

• Gene Goddess, 90, who ran a Seattle business-consulting firm and helped coin the slogan “Oh Boy Oberto” for the famous local sausage maker, died May 18 in Medina of prostate cancer. He was also active in Rotary Club and philanthropy.

• Norma M. Dimmitt, 86, a longtime professor of education at the University of Washington and an accomplished musician, died May 18 in Seattle of heart failure.

• C. Montgomery “Gummie” Johnson, 81, a veteran political consultant and former state Republican chairman, died May 21 in Olympia of complications from a stroke and diabetes.

• Tim Stark, 57, of Lakewood, Pierce County, and his nephew, Greg Stark, 27, of Issaquah, died during a camping outing on Mount Rainier. Their bodies were retrieved May 24, a day after they were reported missing.

• Everett DuPen, 92, a University of Washington art professor for more than 35 years, chairing the sculpture division at his retirement in 1982, died May 25 in Bellevue of congestive heart failure.

• Martin J. Durkan Sr., 81, who twice ran for governor of Washington, was a former chairman of the state Senate Ways and Means Committee and one of the state’s most powerful lobbyists, died May 29 in Hawaii, where he and his wife had a vacation home. He had been in failing health and recently suffered a heart attack.

• Don McGaffin, 78, a reporter, commentator and consumer advocate for KING-TV in the 1970s and early ’80s who played a major role in what many regard as the heyday of broadcast news in Seattle, died May 29 after a fall in his Magnolia home.

• Edmund “Bear” Downing, 61, a former computer consultant who traveled the world via sailboat, died May 30 in Seattle of complications from cancer surgery.

June

• Delores Haglund Jones, 80, who with her husband established the Floyd and Delores Jones Foundation to help fund many Seattle-area organizations, died June 1 on Camano Island after a stroke.

• Gene Ford, 77, a noted wine writer, educator and publisher, died June 10 in Seattle of complications from heart surgery.

• The Rev. O.J. Moore Sr., 79, a Baptist pastor and the driving force of the Emergency Feeding Program, an ecumenical food-bank program that since the late 1970s has fed tens of thousands of the Seattle area’s homeless and hungry, died June 12 in Seattle.

• David Diamond, 89, a prolific composer who wrote several works for the Seattle Symphony over the past two decades in his role as honorary composer in residence, died June 13 in Rochester, N.Y., of congestive heart failure.

• Ramona Solberg, 84, widely known for her innovative jewelry designs and her influence as a teacher, died June 13 in Seattle.

• Malcolm Stamper, 80, the legendary Boeing executive who led the development of the 747 and, after retiring in 1990, started a children’s book publishing company, died June 14 in Seattle of prostate cancer.

• J.D. Alexander, 66, former publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer during a newspaper career that spanned four decades, died June 14 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., of pulmonary hypertension.

• William Wasserman, 80, who worked to improve chemistry education at the national and regional levels and taught generations of students at Seattle Central Community College, died June 17 in Seattle of heart failure.

• George V. Janovich Sr., 77, a former sheriff convicted of protecting a nightclub and bail-bond syndicate in a scandal that led to an overhaul of Pierce County government, died June 19 in Gig Harbor of a ruptured appendix. He served six years in federal prison.

• Elmer Berg, 86, who played football for the University of Washington and earned a Silver Star while serving with the Navy’s underwater demolition team — forerunner of the Navy SEALs — during World War II, died June 20 in Seattle of complications from Parkinson’s disease.

• Phil Gai, 80, who with his family built Gai’s Bakery into Seattle’s largest baking company, died June 21 in Redmond.

• Mauro Torrigiotti, 47, a baritone in the Seattle Opera Chorus and conductor of the Boeing Orchestra of Flight, died recently of a heart attack.

• Betty Hiatt, 81, who had become locally known as an advocate for medical marijuana, speaking publicly about smoking it to help combat nausea and weight loss from her diseases and treatments, died June 25 in Ballard of breast cancer.

• Mike Robb, 46, a tennis coach at Newport High School in Bellevue, was fatally shot June 26 in Seattle. (An 18-year-old suspect was charged in the shooting.)

• Alefosio Hefa, 19, a former star football player at Seattle’s Cleveland High School, died June 26 after being shot at a party in Covington in South King County.

• Robert E. Galer, 91, a retired Marine brigadier general, Medal of Honor winner in World War II and member of the University of Washington’s Husky Hall of Fame, died June 27 in Dallas of a stroke.

• Jack Abercrombie, 83, who helped build the reputation of Seattle outdoor-clothing pioneers Eddie Bauer and Filson by developing the mail-order operations of both companies, died June 27 in Seattle of complications from leukemia.

July

• James G. “Jimi” Lott, 52, a former Seattle Times photographer from 1984 to 2004 who was known for a keen eye and a compassion for the less fortunate, was found dead July 5 in a Wenatchee motel room. The death was ruled a suicide.

• Paul Johnson, 89, a doctor who had a longtime practice in Ballard and answered medical questions on local radio stations from the 1970s to ’90s, died July 7 in Ballard of cancer.

• Arthur Fletcher, 80, a native of Washington state who served a string of Republican presidents, helping to create federal affirmative-action programs as an assistant secretary of labor under President Nixon and serving as chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights under President George H.W. Bush, died July 12 in Washington, D.C.

• Gary Milgard, 68, founder of Milgard Manufacturing in Tacoma, who donated millions to area charities, died July 13 in Tacoma.

• David L. Webster III, 88, a commercial pilot for more than 50 years who logged 31,000 hours in the air, died July 14 on Mercer Island.

• Ed K. Erickson, 89, who oversaw the creation of the Seattle Community Colleges system, died July 15 in Issaquah of a head injury suffered in a fall.

• Robert K. Murase, 66, a Portland resident who was one of the nation’s most respected landscape architects, died July 19 in a Seattle hospital of complications from a heart attack. His stamp can be found in the “Garden of Remembrance” in downtown Seattle.

• Feledra Jungar, 89, the first woman to sell men’s suits at the downtown Frederick & Nelson store in the 1960s, at a time when such higher-paying commission sales job were reserved for men, died July 19 in Seattle of respiratory complications.

• James Doohan, 85, who played engineer Montgomery Scott, the scrappy Scotsman who repeatedly gave the Starship Enterprise “all she’s got” in the original “Star Trek” TV series and movies, died July 20 in Redmond of pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease.

• Glynn Ross, 90, founding general director of Seattle Opera, died of a stroke July 21 in Tucson, Ariz. He also developed its international calling card: regular productions of Wagner’s four-opera masterpiece, the “Ring,” and was one of the creators of Pacific Northwest Ballet.

• Mark A. Gehring, 55, an avid scuba diver who advised clients on equipment and technique at Underwater Sports Bellevue for 20 years, died July 21 in Redmond of cancer.

• Jane MacGowan, 93, a longtime music teacher and avid hiker, died July 22 in Seattle.

• David R. Mahre, 77, known for his challenging ascents of Pacific Northwest peaks and as the father of Olympic skiers Phil and Steve Mahre, died July 23 in Tacoma after undergoing emergency heart surgery.

• Peter Hobbs, 69, a British-born meteorologist who did much of his research in airplanes and spent more than 40 years at the University of Washington because Seattle is “the cloud capital of the world,” died July 25 in Beaux Arts Village of pancreatic cancer.

• R. Eugene Boyd, 83, an attorney who was a civic activist in Bellevue and played a key role in its incorporation as a city in 1953, died July 26 in Bellevue of complications related to a stroke.

• Donald D. Oates, 92, a career educator and former Lake Stevens School District superintendent, died July 29 in Everett of complications associated with a bone-marrow disease.

August

• Hans Wolf, 92, the community-outreach director and longtime conductor for Seattle Opera, died Aug. 5 in Seattle of a heart attack.

• Linda Ruehle, 63, Issaquah city clerk for 26 years before retiring in 2001, died Aug. 6 in Issaquah of lung cancer.

• Shawn “Bergie” Bergstrom, 34, and his wife, Dinah, 28, were killed Aug. 8 in a highway accident near Cheyenne, Wyo. Mr. Bergstrom transformed a three-church Lutheran youth program into a confederation of 10 Seattle-area churches and more than 200 children; Mrs. Bergstrom worked at the Seattle Art Museum.

• Cliff Lunneborg, 72, a longtime University of Washington professor of statistics and psychology, died Aug. 9 of coronary-artery damage that struck while he was inner-tubing in Lake Washington.

• Tony Ferrucci, 85, a longtime South Park print-shop owner and activist who fought for recognition of the blue-collar Seattle neighborhood he felt was too often neglected, died Aug. 14 in Seattle of cancer.

• Robert Bailey, 87, who represented Southwest Washington in the state Legislature for 26 years, died Aug. 14 in Olympia.

• Ellsworth Culver, 78, a Seattle-born humanitarian who helped shape the Pacific Northwest’s Mercy Corps into an aid organization of global reach, died Aug. 15 in Portland of complications of cancer surgery.

• Herbert Elsner, 92, World War II veteran, mountaineer and owner of a Bellevue bowling alley, died Aug. 16 of cancer complications.

• Lloyd Meeds, 77, a former gas station operator who served seven terms as a Democratic congressman from Washington state’s 2nd District, died Aug. 17 in Church Creek, Md., of cancer. After leaving Congress in 1979, he was a partner with the Seattle-based law firm of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds.

• Jerome Smersh, 83, longtime Seattle obstetrician/gynecologist who delivered an estimated 4,000 babies over 40 years, died Aug. 20 of complications of dementia.

• Jim McMillin, 91, a rower on the storied 1936 University of Washington crew that won the Olympic gold medal in front of Adolf Hitler, died Aug. 22 in Bremerton. He had lived on Bainbridge Island for more than 45 years and was a retired Boeing engineer.

• John Davidson, 69, a member of the King County Citizens’ Election Oversight Committee, died Aug. 30 in Redmond.

September

• Karen McBeth, 59, who had a 25-year career with the state Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration and conceived of a program to provide adult mentors to youth who had been imprisoned for serious crimes, died Sept. 3 in Port Townsend of cancer.

• Frank Papasedero, 78, who coached thousands of Seattle-area boys in youth, high-school and college baseball, died Sept. 4 in Seattle of a heart attack.

• Jerry Sando, 71, who played Bozo the Clown and several other characters on local children’s TV in the late 1950s and early ’60s and was involved in local theater during those years, died Sept. 4 in Lacey, Thurston County, of lung disease.

• Hank Anderson, 84, who compiled the most wins in Gonzaga University basketball history during his 21 seasons as coach, died Sept. 5 in Gig Harbor, Pierce County, of an aortic aneurysm.

• Blake Samodell, 24, an Army private from Brush Prairie, Clark County, died Sept. 15 as the result of an accident during a parachute training exercise at Fort Lewis.

• Donald Mooney Sr., 79, founding president and CEO of Equitable Life of Japan, a subsidiary of the former Equitable Life Insurance Co., died Sept. 15 in Bellevue of complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.

• Harmony M. Adams, 85, a North Seattle homemaker known for her warmth, joy for living, and her cookie and caramel-corn recipes, died Sept. 15 in Seattle from heart complications.

• Tom Baker, 90, who had a lifelong love of trains and was in charge of the popular Casey Jones excursion steam trains that ran from King Street Station during the 1950s and ’60s, died Sept. 15 in Des Moines of cancer.

• William Stine, 81, who worked as doorman at the downtown Seattle Frederick & Nelson department store from the mid-1980s until the store closed in 1992, died Sept. 18 in Seattle after a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s disease.

• James Cufley Jr., 66, of Lake Forest Park, who served 20 years as an administrative-law judge for the state of Washington and was known as an outdoorsman and adventurer, died Sept. 24 of a heart attack while sailing with friends on Commencement Bay.

• Sam Volpentest, 101, a lobbyist known for his tireless efforts to secure federal funding for the Hanford nuclear reservation and the nearby Tri-Cities, died Sept. 28 in Richland.

• Iola Winifred Lobehan Bill, 89, the oldest member of the Muckleshoot Tribe, died Sept. 29 on the Muckleshoot reservation.

October

• Robert Hanson, 85, the last surviving crew member of the famed Memphis Belle B-17 bomber that flew combat missions over Europe during World War II, died Oct. 1 in Albuquerque, N.M., of congestive heart failure. The Walla Walla native was the radio operator on the Memphis Belle.

• August Wilson, 60, a playwright and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner who fashioned his tales of the black struggle in 20th-century America into a monumental 10-play cycle, one of the most ambitious in modern drama, died Oct. 2 in Seattle of liver cancer.

• Anthony Qamar, 62, Washington’s state seismologist, and Daniel Johnson, 46, a fellow scientist who had worked at area universities, died Oct. 4 when the car they were riding in was struck by logs that fell off a trailer truck on Highway 101 north of Hoquiam.

• Rodger Hickel, 63, a Boeing flight engineer who lived in Gig Harbor, was killed Oct. 4 in a head-on collision with a stolen pickup driven by a 14-year-old Tacoma boy on Highway 302 near Purdy, Pierce County.

• Chuck West, 90, a bush pilot who turned his love of Alaska into a multimillion-dollar tourism empire that includes Seattle-based Cruise West, died Oct. 4 near Haines, Alaska.

• Alan Merson, 71, a Unitarian minister in Washington and British Columbia who was involved in causes to help the environment and the poor, died Oct. 4 on Bainbridge Island of cancer. He walked across Washington state last year to draw attention to the nation’s health-care crisis.

• Mercedes Frances Deiz, 87, Oregon’s first black state judge, died Oct. 5 in Portland. In 1970, Gov. Tom McCall appointed her to the bench and she went on to win four consecutive six-year terms as a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge.

• Jim Haines, 85, who served several terms as a Snohomish County commissioner and owned a fishing wharf in Edmonds, died Oct. 11 in Seattle.

• Sam Smith, 47, a dynamic R&B singer who was a top draw in Seattle clubs in the 1980s, died Oct. 11 after a long battle with cancer.

• Gene Hokanson, 67, a pilot who owned a medical-instruments company in Bellevue, and Brittany Boatright, 15, and Kandyce Cowart, 14, students at Aviation High School in South Seattle, were killed Oct. 15 when the plane they were in crashed near Paine Field in Everett.

• John D. Eastham, 60, an advertising executive who served as Seafair chairman in 1998 and held leadership positions in a variety of community organizations, died Oct. 15 of cancer.

• Thomas Swayze Jr., 74, speaker of the state House in 1971-72 and a longtime Pierce County Superior Court judge, died Oct. 16 in Tacoma of leukemia.

• Rosalie Reddick Miller, 79, the first African-American woman to become a dentist in Washington state, died Oct. 17 in Seattle of cancer.

• Carl Skoog, 46, of Redmond, a backcountry skier and renowned professional ski photographer, died in a fall Oct. 17 while skiing high on a mountain in Argentina.

• Willa O’Connor, 91, whose passions for writing and the outdoors led her to climb Mount Rainier at 55 and hit the slopes in her 80s, died Oct. 19 in Seattle.

• Louise Wiegenstein, 88, who retired in 1979 as an associate professor of pathology at the University of Washington at age 62 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Russian studies, died Oct. 23 in Seattle of Alzheimer’s disease.

• John Szablya, 81, a native of Hungary and former engineering professor at Washington State University, died Oct. 29 in Kirkland of leukemia.

• Karen Donaldson, 58, of Kirkland, who swam competitively for more than a decade and won more than 20 medals in international competitions for disabled athletes, died Oct. 29 of pneumonia.

• Lisa Lynn Hitchings, 43, former publisher of three Kitsap County weekly newspapers, died Oct. 31 in Poulsbo of cancer. Because of her declining health, Hitchings resigned in September from the Central Kitsap Reporter, Northwest Navigator and Bremerton Patriot.

November

• Rella Foley, 69, who served two five-year terms as ombudsman-director for the King County Office of Citizen Complaints, died Nov. 2 in Seattle after a long illness.

• Winfield “Bill” A. Foreman, 90, who worked in the retail and fashion industry and whose family once owned Foreman & Clark, one of the nation’s largest clothing franchises, died Nov. 3 in Seattle of a heart attack.

• Derek Lamb, 69, an Academy Award-winning producer of animated short films and the influential former executive producer of the National Film Board of Canada’s English Animation Studio, died Nov. 5 in Poulsbo of cancer. He won an Oscar for producing the 1979 animated short “Every Child,” a bittersweet story co-written by Lamb about an abandoned baby.

• Robert Bush, 79, who at 18 became the youngest sailor to earn the Medal of Honor for his service in World War II, died Nov. 8 in Olympia of cancer. The Tacoma native was a Navy medical corpsman serving in Okinawa when he rescued a lieutenant, picked up an automatic rifle and took out a group of Japanese fighters.

• Walter Stauffacher, 78, a Superior Court judge who oversaw a sweeping water-rights case, was found dead at his Yakima home Nov. 8. The county coroner said Judge Stauffacher “probably had a heart attack.” The ongoing case to sort out all claims to surface water in the Yakima River Basin has at least 40,000 claimants and may reach its conclusion by late next year, 29 years after it was filed.

• Bryan E. Mahon, 92, an engineer at Boeing for 46 years who helped test bombers from the B-29 through the B-52 and passenger planes through the 767, died Nov. 10 on Mercer Island.

• Jerre D. Noe, 82, who helped build the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington and was a key figure in early efforts to computerize banking, died Nov. 12 in Seattle of cancer.

• Henry Polin, 59, recently listed by a magazine as one of the top-rated primary-care physicians in the Puget Sound area, died Nov. 13 in Kirkland of a heart attack.

• Dorothy Johnston, 59, a Group Health Cooperative employee who helped settle last year’s labor dispute with management and also worked for social justice as a church volunteer, died Nov. 15 in Seattle of cancer.

• Fritz Richmond, 66, a folk musician considered one of the world’s finest players of the jug and washtub bass, died Nov. 20 in Portland of lung cancer.

• Robert Sollitto, 81, former police chief in Redmond who later became a master gardener, winemaker and chef, died Nov. 21 in Redmond of an aneurysm.

• Willie “Woody” Gray, 62, who had a long career with the Port of Seattle Fire Department and was one of the founding members of the Port of Seattle Professional Minority Firefighters Association, died Nov. 29 in Skyway of a heart attack.